National Fisherman Magazine August 2016

Posted on 07 November 2016

Bibs that take a beating

Canadian company brings its foul-weather gear stateside

By Michael Crowley

What does it mean when a manufacturer says its foul weather gear is incredibly durable? For Climate Technical Gear it means you can attack the fabric used for a coat or bib pants with an electric palm power sander with course grit, a power drill with a steel wire wheel, an electric drill with a brass wire brush, then ending up with an oyster knife, and it won't be a problem.

You can watch that taking place on a video shown on Climate Technical Gear's website. Then water is poured over the layers of fabric to indicate all that abuse has not caused any tears in the material. It's why Clinton Desveaux, global sales manager for Climate Technical Gear, has no problem saying ''the product is incredibly tough. If you are hauling wire traps or getting stuff with barnacles on it, it doesn’t rip and tear.”

Climate Technical Gear is a Canadian company based in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. It’s been in business for 30 years but only in the last five years has it turned its attention to manufacturing and marketing marine foul weather gear under the name Sevaen. In that time, just one item has been returned, due to what Desveaux says was “ a defect in the manufacturing process”.

Climate Technical Gear started marketing the Sevaen brand to fishermen in the United States this past January, with most of the effort in the North-east, from Maine to New Jersey.

The top of the Sevaen line is the Industrial Deluxe Jacket and Industrial Basic Bib Pant, which feature a rip-stop 420D nylon outer shell with polyurethane-coated polyester knit waterproof fabric.

On the jacket are neoprene cuffs and a detachable lime coloured hood, which makes you visible when working on the deck or if you end up in the water. The inside lining is waterproof and there’s an inside snapped stormflap. The buckles on the bib pants are good to minus 30 degrees Celsius.

Both the jacket and bib pants are made up of 2 layers. “That creates an air pocket that runs up and down the jacket and bib that keeps you cool,” says Desveaux. “If you don’t have that air pocket you start to sweat like crazy.”

“Customizing for big guys is available,” says Desveaux, “and we also do women cuts.” The jacket is priced at $235.99 and the bib pants are $142.990